In our Australian Patent No. 544211 (AU-B-21403/83), and U.S. Pat. No. 283,854, we describe a moulded plastics garment hanger having an improved arm cross section which significantly increases the strength of the hanger and therefore enables it to be manufactured in a manner which reduces the amount of material used in the moulding of the hanger. While such hangers have achieved significant commercial success, market requirements have developed which dictate that further increases in hanger strength must be achieved to reduce the likelihood of hanger breakages which could result in injuries to the end users of the product.
Our continuing research has shown that hangers of the type described in our above mentioned patent tend to fracture, under extreme load conditions, in the region of the transition between the shoulder of the hanger and the arm of the hanger. This area of weakness becomes noticeable when the hangers are used for heavy weight garments of the type which are sold in markets outside Australia, for example, in the northern hemisphere markets of Europe and North America. When the hanger supports a heavier type of garment, the arms of the hanger tend to bend at the transition region between the shoulder and arms and may therefore develop fractures or breakages in these regions. Such problems may in particular develop where the hanger is moulded from a less flexible material, such as general purpose polystyrene.
In most moulded plastics garment hangers, including the hanger described in our aforementioned patent, the arms are strengthened by means of channel or I-sections, or variations of such sections, such as described in our aforementioned patent. The channel or I-section usually extends along the length of the arm and through the transition region between the arms and the shoulder of the hanger. Experiments have shown that the passage of the channel section, or the extension of the I-section, through this region creates areas of weakness about which the arms tend to bend when the hanger is excessively loaded.